Lil' Techies

My kids will spend an entire car trip hooked up to DVD players, iPods or gaming devices if I let them. This seems to be typical of Generation Z, who are digital natives born in the age of on-demand entertainment. I actually took time during our latest trip to teach them how to look out the window.

To encourage them to window-watch, I used technology in advance of the trip. We sat down and searched Google Images for things they might see on their upcoming travels, like silos, lakes, windmills, and cityscapes. I printed out these pages for them to color when we saw one and make a little booklet for them.

For other ideas on using the Internet to encourage non-tech travel, try MomsMinivan.com:101 Car Game and Road Trip Activities.

I know this to be true as my boys have developed a very large vocabulary from the exciting adventures of Batman and Astro Boy. They are also inspired in their play by the magical world of superheroes, fantasy and adventure! NPR talks about it today as well:

Enrich Your Nerd Power: What Kids Learn From Comics
http://www.npr.org/blogs/monkeysee/2010/04/it_pays_to_enrich_your_nerd_po_1.html?sc=fb&cc=fp

The Kaiser Family Foundation released a report, Generation M2: Media in the lives of 8-18 year olds, showing that 24 hour media access (cable kids stations, home video games, cell phones, social networking, etc.) has dramatically increased the time 8-18 year olds spend with technology (about 10 hours a day!!).

One of our favorite Christmas presents this year was Super Mario Brothers for the Wii. This is the first game of its kind that lets gamers play in the same world, at the same time (if you have 2 remotes). In multiplayer mode, both of my kids can run through Mario land as a team.

Even though many fights have erupted between the brothers for not collaborating properly, multiplayer mode has the potential to teach team-building and collaboration:

1. Cooperation
   To get the most coins, the players must work together. This means that they must cooperate and make plans outside of Marioland. For example, one player can say to the other, “you get the coins on the top, I’ll get the coins on the bottom”. Time is saved and both players get the benefits.
2. Courtesy
   If one player runs ahead too far, the other player will die. As a courtesy, the faster player usually waits for the other player to catch up before high tailing it to the next adventure.
3. Teaching
   In our case, one of our players is more advanced (the 6 year old) than the other (the 4 year old). In order for their partnership to work, the more experienced player must instruct the other player on what to do, how to do it and why.
4. Helping
   One thing my two lil’ players have discovered is that they can help each other. When time is running out, the better player lets the less experienced player hop on his back and carries him along to finish the board.
5. Team Work
   The brothers are a team. Like it or not, what one does affects the other. The players learn that they are dependent on each other and that they will win or lose together.
6. Decision-making
   In Marioland, everything happens quickly so there isn’t much time for making decisions, but in multiplayer mode, this gives kids a chance to make decisions together.

Here is a list of more cooperative games for the Wii.

Our kids won’t be getting a Nintendo DS until they are at least pre-teens, nor will they have a TV in their room. But as lovers of technology, I do believe there are a few tech gifts that could have positive impacts on our kids, rather than turning them into tv-heads.

Tech gifts (under $35) that won’t turn your (under 8) kids into TV-Heads:

• Try refurbishing an old laptop that has the bare basics on it–word processing, image editing, calculator, etc. They will surprisingly find great uses for it. We gave our kids our old PC laptops and they love typing and looking around.
• An MP3 player will let your kids store family photos, videos and favorite songs. I have found that my kids don’t abuse the MP3 player but really enjoy it on car trips or in doctor’s offices. We look at pictures, they listen to their favorite songs (often sharing the earbuds) and can pick up radio stations. We have a Sansa Fuze which we got for about $30.
• A bike computer (otherwise known as a speedometer or odometer) is great fun for the school-age kid. We ride our bikes almost everyday to school–the bike computer lets them learn about speed and distance.
• There are a lot of kids digital cameras on the market, but we have found purchasing a used one from eBay to be just as fun. Kids have a great time photographing their life and these pictures will give you fodder when doing digital imaging projects with them!
• We spend at least a half hour reading to our kids everyday, but sometimes they like to spend alone time reading too. Since our kids are not of reading age yet, the VTech Reading Pen has been hours of fun for them. It lets explore the VTech books and have multi-sensory experience with the stories. Since the pen only works with the Vtech books, I don’t see the reading pen as a threat to their own interest in reading, just another way to explore books.

I was hesitant to make this one a family activity because of the title implications, but Elf Yourself is too good to pass up! The kids and I had a hilarious time finding pictures, uploading them, then watching JibJab turn our faces into dancing elves. The final result says it all!